


The Door Swings Wide

by anthologia



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Captivity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 06:21:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3109307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthologia/pseuds/anthologia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Dr. Banner has been in military custody for the safety of herself and others,” Fury says, teeth gritted together. </p><p>“Really? Was there a trial? Because I would be fascinated to see the trial. Everyone, raise your hand if you want to look at the court transcripts on this.” </p><p>(A few scenes from the Avengers in a universe where Dr. Bryce Banner was captured by the military after the Incident and held in custody up to Loki's stealing the Tesseract.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not necessarily based in the same continuity as the other bits of the Life and Times series, but essentially uses the same Dr. Banner. There's nothing particularly triggery in this chapter, although some of the dialogue changes are intended to imply some... less-than-pleasant things. This was written for my h_c bingo card "captivity".
> 
> Title from the Mountain Goats' "1 John 4:16": 'In the cell that holds my body back, the door swings wide/And I feel like someone's lost child as the guards lead me outside. ... So I won't be afraid of anything ever again.'
> 
> Possible eventual Bryce/Steve/Tony, though for now there's mostly just Tony flirting. Because Tony.

The file Steve reads doesn’t quite prepare him for actually meeting Dr. Banner. Despite the awe-inspiring force of destruction she carries in her and her apparent nearly unparalleled genius, the woman herself is painfully unassuming. She’s clearly deeply uncomfortable, her shoulders hunched in on herself like she thinks she can make herself disappear if she tries hard enough, and despite the fact that he called her over, she still blinks at his outstretched hand like she’s confused that he wants to say hello.

“Hi,” she says after a moment. “They told me you would be coming.”

He drops his hand when it’s clear she’s not very comfortable with the contact. It makes sense, he guesses. He doesn’t know what it’s like for her usually, but when he first had the super soldier serum, he was constantly worried about how to control his strength. Maybe she just never got over the initial self-distrust. “Word is you can find the cube.”

Banner can’t stop herself from getting distracted by all the movement around them. Even though she tries to keep her attention on him, he notices her gaze slipping off him to track the people doing their jobs around them. “Really. Is that the only word on me?”

“Only word I care about.”

After that, Agent Romanov distracts them with the information that the floating base they’re on is actually intended to fly, and he notices but doesn’t really pay attention when they step inside and the tense set to Bryce’s shoulders relaxes minutely.

\--

Tony is more than ready to be meeting Dr. Bryce Banner. He’d fallen pretty much straight into intellectual lust with her mind back when she was publishing and had considered having JARVIS do some kind of search for her when she stopped, but he got… busy. Little bit.

He kind of wishes he had, though, because not only is she the only one present who can not only follow what he’s saying but bounce new ideas back at him, but the way she holds herself like she’s not the second-most intelligent person in the room (because, come on, he’s in the room) is adorable. He gives her a wink because he’s Tony Goddamn Stark and offers out his hand. “It’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. Science community hasn’t been the same since you stopped publishing. Well,” he adds with a smirk (and seriously, the little blush she has going at the praise like she doesn’t hear this all the time? It’s killing him, it’s deeply unfair), “I guess we know now what happened there. Huge fan of that, by the way, looking forward to seeing you in action.”

Banner gets a sour look on her face for a moment, like she doesn’t want to be reminded, before Fury so rudely interrupts their private conversation. “Dr. Banner is only here to find the cube. I was hoping you might join her.”

Before he can explain, in detail, just how happy he would be to do just that, Steve interrupts to talk about Loki’s staff, and then it’s all Fury this and Thor that and blah blah Wizard of Oz. Once the people in the room stop talking about anything useful, he waggles his eyebrows at Banner and waves towards the door. “Shall we play, Doctor?”

She ducks her head and nods before waving to the door. “This way.”

Bryce had this pretty much under control before he got here, but he has the ideas and the tech at hand to make this go much smoother. He can see the clearly toy-deprived jealousy in her eyes when she looks at what he brought along and figures he might as well barrel full-steam ahead. “You should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors? All R&D. You’d love it, it’s Candyland.”

And okay, maybe he doesn’t expect her to jump up and down like a little kid who’s just been given the keys to a toy store, but he doesn’t expect the way she just shuts down. “Thanks,” she says, “but I, ah, don’t get out much.”

“What, the big green elephant in the room? Cause we can work around that. I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises.” He can’t stop himself from poking her in the side with a teeny, tiny bit of electricity, just to see what happens. 

What happens is that she barely reacts, which. Kind of disconcerting, since Tony’s pretty sure most people at least yelp a little when someone zaps them. “Nothing? You really have got a lid on this thing, haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Pot brownies?”

Unfortunately, Captain “Killjoy” Stars and Stripes feels the need to stand in front of them and deliver a lecture. “Is everything a joke to you?”

“Funny things are.”

He looks so damn stern, it’s like he’s the epitome of disappointed parent. “Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny.” After a second, it occurs to the guy that the person he’s talking about is right there. “No offense, Doctor.”

Even Tony notices the way Banner deflates, but she pastes on a smile that has got to be fake. “It’s all right. I wouldn’t have been allowed to set foot on the ship if I couldn’t handle a few… pointy things.”

He points said pointy thing at her (yes, he knows the phallic symbolism, shut up) and says, “You’re tiptoing, Banner. You need to strut.”

“And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark.”

He snorts. “You think I’m not? Why did Fury call us, and why now? Why not before? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables.”

“You think Fury’s hiding something.” Steve frowns, like he hadn’t even considered the idea.

Tony can barely stop himself from rolling his eyes at the guy’s naiveté. “He’s a spy. Captain, he’s the spy. His secrets have secrets.” He pops a blueberry in his mouth and chews obnoxiously. “It’s bugging her, too, isn’t it?”

Banner actually kind of flinches, ducking her head down so she doesn’t have to look anyone in the eye. She sets her hands down on the table, all but demarcating a Banners only workspace. “I just want to finish my work here, and…”

Steve interrupts gently. “Doctor?”

Tony almost gives up on her even answering, she goes quiet for so long. Eventually, she sighs and removes her glasses, looking down again. “A warm light for all mankind. Loki’s jab at Fury about the cube.“

Steve nods. “I heard it.” 

“Well.” Banner turns to Tony. “I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn’t tell Loki about the Tower, it was still all over the news.”

“The Stark Tower? That big, ugly…” Steve has the good graces to look ashamed when Tony gives him a look that is filled with deeply-wounded pride, because seriously, that is his baby. Who talks about a man’s baby like that? Well, okay, Tony has talked about some people’s babies like that, but he’s Tony Stark, he’s an asshole. Captain America is not supposed to call people’s babies ugly, he’s supposed to hold them and fawn over them or something. Whatever, Tony doesn’t know what you’re supposed to do with babies.

Banner rescues both of them. “It’s powered by an Arc Reactor. It’s a self-sustaining energy source.” She looks to him for confirmation. “That building will run itself for, what, a year?”

“It’s just a prototype.” He can’t help but stare pointedly at Steve. “I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now.”

“So…” Banner is looking down at the table again. “Why didn’t SHIELD bring him in on the tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”

“I should probably look into that,” Tony says, not even bothering to resist a little well-timed bragging. “Once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files.”

And seriously, if he thought Banner’s oh shucks, I’m really not that smart look was adorable, Steve’s I can’t believe you would do that, it’s so wrong face is… well, not more adorable, but definitely in the same building. “I’m sorry, did you say – “

“JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I’ll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide.” Because he’s trying to be a good guy here, he offers up his bag of snacks. “Blueberry?”

“And yet you’re confused about why they didn’t want you around.”

He can barely keep the disgust out of his voice. “An intelligence organization that… fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome.”

Then it’s all orders and patriotic duty and I pledge allegiance to the flag (honestly, Tony might have stopped paying attention at some point) until Steve finally gets out of the room, and he can turn back to the person who’s actually worth paying attention to. “Now. Where were we?”

\--

“Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to her – “

“Where?” There’s a ringing in Bryce’s head, it’s making it hard to think. “You rented my room.”

Fury looks so reasonable, so calming. “The cell was just a precaution, in case – “

“ – In case you needed to kill me, but you can’t.” She hugs herself, trying to block out the grumbling in the back of her mind, but it’s so damn hard with that ringing in her ears. “If I thought a drop like that would work, I would’ve tried it on the way here.”

Fuck. The room goes quiet, and she sucks in a breath, preparing to say… something, anything, but Tony chooses that moment to raise his hand. “So on that cheerful note, I just got a ping from JARVIS. Something about how someone in this room isn’t so much here for the tea and crumpets as for the, you know, seeing sunlight and being above the surface for the first time in ages.”

She feels like she can’t breathe. No. No, no one is supposed to know about this. That she can’t keep it together, that she has to be locked up for everyone’s good, fuck – 

Steve takes a step away from her, like he knows she’s even more dangerous than he originally thought. “What are you talking about, Stark?”

Tony points his phone at Fury. “Nick! Want to tell me why the army has been keeping the good Dr. Banner in a cell for the last six years?”

“Dr. Banner has been in military custody for the safety of herself and others,” Fury says, teeth gritted together. 

“Really? Was there a trial? Because I would be fascinated to see the trial. Everyone, raise your hand if you want to look at the court transcripts on this.” Tony’s hand shoots up, and he looks expectantly at everyone else in the room. 

The alarm letting them know the tesseract has been located chooses just then to go off, and she can’t breathe but she stumbles her way over to see what it says. She’s startled halfway there by Steve’s hand on her elbow, steadying her. “Dr. Banner?”

The Helicarrier explodes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super-short chapter, but given that it's been since January, I figured I might as well post what I have.

Tony insists everyone go out for shwarma after, and apparently, Stark money can open a restaurant even after the city’s been torn apart. It’s equal amounts horrifying and impressive. She goes along with it because, well, what else can she do? The Hulk takes massive amounts of energy from her that has to be made up for somehow, and shwarma is as good as anything to fill that hole.

She keeps a mindful eye on the windows until she spots the familiar-looking military escort coming their way, so she figures she might as well pre-empt the firm request that she go with them. “Well, looks like my ride’s here. It’s been… awful, but nice knowing you.”

Tony, who’s been doing something on his phone for the past five minutes, doesn’t even bother to look up. “Yeah, that’s not happening.”

“Tony…” She crosses her arms reflexively. “It’s not a debate.”

“I know, but see, those guys – “ He waves his hand vaguely towards the storefront. “ – are about to be told to stand down by their boss, who I’ve just convinced to leave you alone or else I release information about how the US military has been keeping a brilliant scientist hostage for several years. So. You’re welcome.” He holds out his fist and, after a moment, Clint shrugs and bumps it.

“ _Clint_ ,” Natasha hisses.

“What? I’m with him on this.”

Thor nods gravely, the effect very slightly spoiled by the fact that he really needs a napkin. “I do not see why Dr. Banner should be restrained. She has fought well, and should partake of the festivities.”

Several years ago, she never could have imagined that she’d be the one defending the military’s treatment of her, but. Times change. Besides, if she’s being honest with herself, just being… _out_ here, in the relative open… is making her feel off-balance, and off-balance is never a good sign for the woman who can level a city. It’s been a nice vacation, but it’s time to go home. “This isn’t an open forum. I need to be monitored, for everyone’s safety. End of story.”

Before anyone can try to object again, she walks out and tells the soldiers waiting for her that she’s ready to return to the base.


End file.
